Forum:Bilingual Uncyclopedians?

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Hi everyone,

Are there any bilingual editors still active on the site? I’d like get Uncyclopedia:Foreign Office up and running again this year and was hoping to get some volunteers. I’ve been working on two separate lists, here and here, for this purpose.

I’m going to try and contact former ambassadors on the other foreign-language Uncyclopedias over the next few days. It'd be great to get some retired editors to come back on a part-time basis to translate articles as well. I’d also like to try asking on various expat and translator forums. I’d appreciate any suggestions on how best to go forward.

I understand Italian to some extent but I speak it at a pretty basic level. I could translate a few of the Italian articles but I'll have to rely on Google Translate to help me along the way. --SirXamRalcothe Mediocre 20:31, 5 February 2015 (UTC)

That'd be great Xam. Even just translating the article titles would be a big help. MadMax (talk) 20:25, 6 February 2015 (UTC)

I'm a native Tagalog speaker, but I'm not that active on Uncyclopedia. I can translate articles if I stop making YouTube videos for a while. On a related subject, it's disappointing that Pekepedia, my native Uncyclopedia, is already dead. Stranger195 (talk) 10:30, 25 May 2015 (UTC)

An update

Lars863, one of the original co-founders of the Uncyclopedia:Foreign Office, recently got back to me this weekend. He's started a discussion on the Dutch Uncyclopedia here to find some editors willing to become ambassadors. MadMax (talk) 19:52, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

Does anyone edit on Wikipedia by the way? I was thinking it might be worth reaching out to Wikipedia:Translation for volunteers. It could also be a welcome diversion for those suffering from "wikistress". MadMax (talk) 19:59, 9 February 2015 (UTC)

I will definitely try, but I wrote this article with a great number of puns and references to the Russian, Chinese and Japanese cultures. I'll have to do some study first to translate it with no loss of meaning. Jean Valjean (talk) 19:03, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

I can technically also translate articles from Russian, although I have never tried. Anton(talk) 11:18, 5 August 2015 (UTC)

German

I'm not so active any more on the Uncyclopedias, but still watching, and if there are new ideas or if I can help anybody with anything German, feel free to ask. I would not call myself bilingual but my English should suffice :) --NaturalBornKieler (talk) 10:41, 10 February 2015 (UTC)

Galician

Unfortunately both Desgalipedia as other server wikis has faced problems with servers that since last week worsened working conditions on the sites. And when I have done few bilingual articles being overloaded with other tasks such as corrections of items made by other editors. Rhubella Marie,the rat sockpreppiepreppiedits 06:56, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

I've translated articles from the english to the Spanish uncyclopedia and in reverse as well (but I haven't done it for over a year). There wasn't any reaction at all to either of the articles on both sites so I never bothered again. What's the vision for the foreign office? ShabiDOO 15:03, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

I don't think I shall translate another into Spanish or join the foreign office until I improve, because at the moment translating takes the time and effort of writing an original article in English, just less of the creativity. Plus, humour is surely one of the hardest things to translate. ~EveryOtherUsernameWasTaken(dtf?) 21:42, 15 February 2015 (UTC)

Successfully contacted Frode Fenis. Will consider participating in the Foreign Office if there are clearly defined guidelines and a general reorganization of the project.

Ikkepedia

Norwegian

NOR (Norway)

None

The website is apparently inactive according to Rody45. Left a general message on the forums here.

백괴사전

Korean

KOR (South-Korea)

None

Awaiting response from Salamander. Unable to contact him on the Korean Uncyclopedia but left messages on his talk page at the Korean Wikipedia and Wikiquote. Unable to leave a general message on the forums.

Awaiting response from original ambassador Vygoš. Left a general message on the forums here.

This is the current status regarding Foreign Office ambassadors. I wasn't able to contact certain ambassadors as their talk page was protected. I'm also having trouble browsing a number of foreign-language Uncyclopedias. Many times its difficult to tell if an editor is still active or not. I'm going to try contacting former editors who contributed to other Uncyclopedias to possibly start a forum in their respective languages. MadMax (talk) 22:23, 19 February 2015 (UTC)

The other wikis don't seem to have a forum system but I'll keep looking. MadMax (talk) 19:46, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Update from the Netherlands and Flanders

Hello everyone, this is Lars from the Dutch Uncyc, the Oncyclopedia. Like Max said, I have opened a discussion on the Oncyclopedia to find a new Translator, since I am, indeed, retired. The discussion I opened has not been fruitless. Tiz, a Flemish Oncyclopedian, and a fairly new contributor, GeorgiusNL, have shown interest in the project.

Max, I'd recommend you take up contact with them and see what they can contribute to the new project. They'll be able to inform you how busy their lives are and what their skills are regarding translating. Also, you can always ask me to check on a translation, or for any advice. Especially the new Dutch Translators are very welcome to ask for my help, as translator emeritus - oh, me so humble...

Looking at how many ambassadors you couldn't find, Max, I think it might be wise to take up a direct approach, like I did, and to open up discussions in all the forums, and shove that friggin' project down their unthankful foreign throats and try to find translators that way. Best of luck! L. Catepé////Talk////Work 11:17, 26 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks Alhazred. I can definitely use the help. I have a more updated list I've been working off-site but I've had some trouble uploading it. I'll try uploading it again later today. MadMax (talk) 19:56, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Hello, GeorgiusNL here. I'm (of course) a native-dutch speaker. I speak English (duh) and a bit german. Don't expect the best of me, but I'll do my best (if I've the time for it) GEORGIVSBATAVIA 19:03, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Hi, I'm Tiz! I'm interested in the Foreign Office-project and willing to participate. At this moment I'm busy writing an article about 2014, and I've seen you don't have one at this moment, so maybe... This article is the reason why I don't start translating directly.
In your Foreign Office list, I can't find Dutch, although we have some very good articles. You won't see me translating Dutch to English (that's just too difficult for me) but I'll sure try in reverse.
Thanks, MadMax, I'm very happy you want to resurrect this project! Tiz (talk) 09:33, 28 February 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for the encouragement. :) The page has gotten pretty big and has become difficult to edit. I did include Dutch articles in the references section but I might reorganize the page to include other wikis. MadMax (talk) 12:08, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm a Spanish-English bilingual

I speak English and, fluently, Spanish. Is this to create foreign versions of Uncyclopedia? If so, I'd call a Spanish one "Desciclopedia" to avoid conflict with the Spanish wiki Inciclopedia.
By the way, there's another Spanish wiki, similar to this one: http://www.frikipedia.es/friki/PortadaAlex Hofstadter (talk) 21:45, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

Error

I’ve been having trouble editing the list too. I think the page is too large to be edited at this point. I can try to shorten the page by removing some languages or moving the references to another page. MadMax (talk) 11:57, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

When this problem is solved, please tell me, and then I'll start to edit there. Alhazred (talk) 16:19, 3 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm ambassador from Chinese(simplified) Uncyclopedia

I'm Chinese from mainland China, but I understand Traditional Chinese as well, My English is at the grade of CET4.We are willing to join this project, what shall we do? User:Inulin (talk) 04:24, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

OK. But I'm not sure how it works, shall I translate pages to Chinese, to English, or both? And maybe I should create a page "Foreign Office"? Featured articles selection is now inactive in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese Uncyclopedia, maybe we need to restart it? Inulin (talk) 13:03, 4 March 2015 (UTC)

Translation work is still pretty informal at this point. It really depends on the preference of the individual translator. I’d love to see some articles translated from the Chinese Uncyclopedia but it’s not a requirement to participate. Tiz, for example, will be translating english-language articles to the Dutch Uncyclopedia. Xamralco and a few others have been helping provide accurate article titles at Uncyclopedia:Featured articles in other languages. Alhazred from the Portuguese Uncyclopedia has been helping add to this multilingual list of “vital” encyclopedic articles. I had trouble accessing both versions of the Chinese Uncyclopedia so there’s not many articles in the “Chinese column”.

I believe several other Uncyclopedias had their own version of the Foreign Office page. The original project page for Traditional Chinese was used by the Chinese Uncyclopedia (Taiwan) at Uncyclopedia:Foreign Office/-正體中文 (Traditional Chinese). Wikipedia uses a single discussion forum at Wikimedia.org. It might be a good idea to relocate the project to Uncyclomedia.org but I’m not sure how active it is (or who to talk to). You could also start a discussion on the Chinese Uncyclopedia to get a consensus on what the “best” articles are. They might not necessarily need to be featured articles though. Uncyclopedia:Best of highlights featured articles, and is a good start for translating into foreign languages, but I think Quasi-featured and contest-winning articles are “high-quality” content to translate. MadMax (talk) 13:35, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

I'll sort out the list of feature articles in Simplified Chinese Uncyclopedia these days,but I don't edit in Traditional Chinese site, and do not conscious of the situation there well either. There are huge differences of article style between two Chinese Uncyclopedias, contents of the same article often be different. Personally, Traditional Chinese Uncyclopedia's humor are too localization that difficult to be understand by foreigners even though translated. Inulin (talk) 15:28, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Relocating to UnMeta?

UnMeta seems to be banned in China, can't access it (I live in China). If the project relocates, I won't be able to participate, unfortunately, since being an ambassador is not only translating articles and having wild parties at the embassy, but a lot of paperwork too. Jean Valjean (talk) 07:14, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

I think moving to the Meta is a good idea, because it will make the project look more neutral. But if by ding that some users won't be able to participate it would be better to stay here. And I recently made a forum, but nobody has yet responded. Would you please check it out? Tiz (talk) 19:55, 7 March 2015 (UTC)

Yet another update

I've left a general message for volunteer translators at the following online forums:

Polish

Well I can speak Portuguese... 'Cause I'm Brazilian haha, but if I could help you anyway.... Desciclopédia rulez VinicioHaner (talk) 17:54, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Hakkaa päälle, Pohjan poika! (Finnish)

Greetings! I'm willing to represent Hikipedia, the Finnish Uncyclopedia, if there's need for that. Please excuse my tardiness; our cables have been frozen all winter. I'm a bureaucrat at Hikipedia, but I've been very inactive here at Uncyclopedia. I'm able to translate between Finnish and English, and I have a decent command of Swedish. Also, I think there's some rather rusty German buried somewhere in my cranium. --Näpölëön (talk) 23:00, 9 May 2015 (UTC)

By bilingual do you mean...

Welsh

My Welsh is more than a little rusty these days but it looks like [[1]] is still around, if somewhat lacking in activity. I might be able to drum up some support from some of my Welsh friends. -- Sir Mhaille (talk to me)